Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill completed 61 percent of passes that were in the air for longer than 20 yards, which was second in the NFL in 2016, according to the Deep Ball Project.

Tannehill also completed 64 percent of passes that were in the air longer than 16 yards, fourth in the NFL.

Here is more from the Deep Ball Project:

The progression of Ryan Tannehill has been wonderful to watch for those who look deeper. In the last two seasons, his deep ball has become one of the league’s best, so it should be no surprise he’s become a downfield master under Adam Gase.

With better defined routes, Tannehill’s accuracy soared. His overall accuracy of 64.1% was 4th in 2016, and his accuracy on throws of 20+ was 61.0%, The 2nd highest (only behind Derek Carr).

Last season was the first one I can recall enjoying watching the Dolphin's offense in many years. Tannehill has to take a lot of credit for that, but also Christensen and Ajayi for getting Gase to move to having the run set up the pass. It's easy to forget a lot of us were about to declare ourselves finished with this offense after 5 or 6 weeks. But during all that Tannehill deep passing was on the money.

I was curious to know exactly what the numbers were on Tannehill's deep passing because he was certainly noticeably better last year than he has been in previous years. It really sucks that Tannehill got hurt when he did because the one deep throw that he made to Stills in the Arizona game for our first score of the game really sticks out as just a perfectly thrown bomb.
I think Tannehill really started to come into his own in those last 5 games before he went down with injury... The entire team **** their pants in the Baltimore game, but outside of that, he tore it up in his last 5 games (11 TDs - 5 Picks with 3 in one bad game, completed almost 70% of his passes, 220 YPG) and as I mentioned, the one bad Baltimore game really dragged down otherwise amazing numbers for that stretch. He absolutely killed it against SD, SF and Arizona and he also came up with 2 amazingly clutch drives @ LA to win the game.
I have very high hopes for Ryan this year and going forward. I think he's going to be universally considered a top 10 QB in this league starting this year.

His deep ball is the biggest improvement he's made to his game since his rookie season. It's night and day in comparison. I'd imagine he will have even more success this season with a legit threat at tight end and the emergence of Parker.

I can confidently say that it's all about the guys up front for Tannehill now. When given time, he's going to make the play.

Absolutely agree and I'm glad that you are so willing to admit your stance on him and how it changed, some people will never support him no matter what I believe

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That's because those people are juveniles. Tannehill didn't have sex with my gf or anything. Lol we don't even have the same taste in women! It's not that serious for me. He's a Miami Dolphin, and I'm happy he proved me wrong. That's what all of us should want.

To say otherwise is strange. What are you a fan for with that mentality?

It's amazing what a functional, working relationship does for a QB/HC/OC.

Tannehill doesn't seem like he's ever had an ego. Some would say that's him not displaying an Alpha mentality, but imagine going to work everyday and hating your boss and not believing in the mission. With Gase here it seems that progress can actually be made.

I felt then and reaffirm now that RT's deep ball was NEVER that bad. Mike Wallace was horrible- I despised his play from day 1. Also a big part was the OL's complete lack of time given RT to drop back and launch. If you observed closely, you could sense the frustration RT must have felt with Wallace- sometimes he ran hard, sometimes not. Sometimes he would stretch out, sometimes not. Sometimes he would run the right route, sometimes not. RT NEVER had confidence that he could just launch it and Wallace would be there or compete for it.

It stymied RT's development and I think his confidence took a hit.

Wallace played selfish and scared, and I was shocked when mgmt re-signed him after that first season.

I felt then and reaffirm now that RT's deep ball was NEVER that bad. Mike Wallace was horrible- I despised his play from day 1. Also a big part was the OL's complete lack of time given RT to drop back and launch. If you observed closely, you could sense the frustration RT must have felt with Wallace- sometimes he ran hard, sometimes not. Sometimes he would stretch out, sometimes not. Sometimes he would run the right route, sometimes not. RT NEVER had confidence that he could just launch it and Wallace would be there or compete for it.

It stymied RT's development and I think his confidence took a hit.

Wallace played selfish and scared, and I was shocked when mgmt re-signed him after that first season.

Whew! I feel better now....

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This view was shared by many and scoffed at. The other huge problems with Wallace were a shockingly bad ability to track the ball in the air and terrible field awareness. I'll never forget two plays: a catch he makes along the sideline with the ball in the field of play and his left foot needlessly placed a foot out of bounds, a catch in the endzone where he again steps out of bounds needlessly. Completely clueless.

Not to mention trying to showboat and needlessly trying to make a one handed catch on a long pass as well as my all time favourite dropping a pass and trying to clap his hands in frustration but missing completely.

I just seen this article. It's definitely great to see him improving. I'm pumped to watch football this season and can't wait! The throw against the steelers where he is rolling out to the left and drops a dime in Greys bucket was an amazing throw. Also, in San Diego where he stood in the pocket, got drilled but threw a perfect bomb to still that hit him in the back of the end zone was another pas that was amazing.

i think his deep ball is getting better because dolphins have bigger wr that can catch the ball like parker

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So that's why Kenny Stills caught 9tds and like 4 for 35+. Cus Kenny is tall, not ball placement and or speed. Lol, I guess some people really don't watch the games but man, Tannehill has become one of the best deep passers in the league. It's that simple.

The deep ball project that's being referenced does chart accuracy, and accuracy still credits the quarterback for failed catches.

However, it's entirely reasonable and fair to credit the Dolphins' skill position players for some of the team's success throwing deep. DeVante Parker has not been reliable at the catch point (he's made some great catches, but also had a bunch of failed receptions), but Kenny Stills and Jarvis Landry have been money on those 20+ yard passes. I'm more than willing to forgive #10 at this point for the Seattle debacle. He's redeemed himself.

I think that Kenny Stills + Jarvis Landry is certainly a better duo for the deep shots than Hartline and Wallace were. Even though the two receivers we have now are not as fast as that other pair, they're simply better at finding the football, going to get it, coming down with the ball, and then staying on their feet.

So it's fair to say that the quarterback deserves credit for throwing downfield well, especially on the move or when he's being blasted in the face, which are both very difficult situations for those throws. And it's also fair to say that the better deep passing numbers are due in no small part to having better targets for the attempts.

Let me just add that for a couple of years there, some of us held the opinion that "The quarterback is not the primary reason for failure in our deep passing game." We were ridiculed and called excuse-makers.

You had bad pass protection, bad play design, and wide receivers who were flat out failing to catch the football. Those weren't things that were imagined, that was the sad and absurd reality of football under coach Joe Philbin. I think back specifically to a game in 2013, I think it was against the Chargers, when Mike Sherman dialed up a play that was absolutely ridiculous. He called for a delayed play action draw followed by a deep shot to Wallace. By the time the ball left Tannehill's hand, the guy was already like 30 yards downfield.

Leroy Hoard on the radio after the game was asked about that play and put it 100% on Mike Sherman, saying that the play design was ridiculous. CKParrothead and a couple of other football junkies came on here and pointed out the exact same thing about that play. And this is something that really wouldn't even occur to you unless you really knew about what goes into the timing of that kind of play.

It certainly didn't occur to me until it was pointed out by Hoard on the radio.

So, YES, the quarterback has improved on that area of his passing, but he's also not being set up to fail on those throws anymore. It's OK to admit it. We really were that incompetent as an organization that we finally found a good quarterback and then we screwed up everything else.

He's improved so much in that area. It's amazing people still say he can't throw the ball deep. Plus it helps that he has better chemistry with Stills, Landry, and Parker than he did with Wallace and Hartline on the deep ball. It was a weakness of Tannehill, but Wallace was lazy with his routes and never battle for the ball. He never gave his full effort down here it seemed.

Yup. I'm content with seeing us have an offense that can make big plays and not being called a lunatic for holding the opinion that our starting quarterback is capable of throwing the football downfield with NFL caliber accuracy.

We get some consistency in getting drives started and this thing is cooking.